The French postal service, La Poste, has honored THE SIMS franchise with an official postage stamp. Published in limited edition of three million units, Les Sims is one of 10 stamps in the “Heroes of Videogames” collection featuring the industry’s most beloved icons.
The set retails for 2.65 euros (approximately $3.09 USD) and is available now in French post offices and through La Poste's website at
www.timbres.laposte.fr/eng .
Since the original PC game, THE SIMS, debuted in February 2000, the franchise has been translated into 20 languages and has sold more than 58 million games worldwide. That’s nearly enough to provide a copy of THE SIMS to every single French resident, according to SIMS publisher Electronic Arts, the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company. THE SIMS games are so popular in France, that it ranks number eight on the top 10 list of entertainment products, right behind the popular novel, THE DA VINCI CODE.
“From fashion to food, history to heraldry, the French have always been cultural tastemakers,” said EA’s chief creative officer, Bing Gordon. “We thank them not only for commemorating THE SIMS with an official postage stamp, but also for making it one of the top ten most celebrated entertainment products in France—Merci!”
THE SIMS franchise celebrated its fifth anniversary in February 2005. The game skyrocketed to the top of the charts when it began shipping to stores in February 2000 and quickly become a pop culture phenomenon. Released exclusively for PC, THE SIMS original product and subsequent expansion packs were the bestselling PC games of 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. Translated into 17 different languages, THE SIMS has inspired seven top selling expansion packs including: THE SIMSLIVIN' LARGE, THE SIMSHOUSE PARTY, THE SIMSHOT DATE, THE SIMSVACATION, THE SIMSUNLEASHED, THE SIMSSUPERSTAR and THE SIMSMAKIN' MAGIC.
In 2003, the series broke away from being a PC-only franchise and debuted for the first time on videogame consoles and handheld platforms. THE SIMS 2 for PC shipped in September 2004. Sales topped 4.5 million units worldwide within its first year, making it the bestselling PC game of 2004. The first expansion packs for the sequel, THE SIMS2 UNIVERSITY and THE SIMS2 NIGHTLIFE shipped in March 2005 and September 2005 respectively.
In fall 2005, THE SIMS 2 was released for the videogame consoles. Today, the combined sales for the franchise have topped 58 million units life-to-date. For more information on THE SIMS 2, visit
www.thesims2.com and for more information on The Sims franchise titles, visit
www.thesims.com .
Electronic Arts (
www.ea.com ), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a world-leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes and distributes interactive software worldwide for videogame systems, personal computers and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS, EA, EA SPORTS BIG and POGO. In fiscal 2005, EA posted revenues of $3.1 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies.
